Malinche

by Laura Esquivel

Book Summary

When Malinalli, a member of the tribe conquered by the Aztec warriors, first meets Cortés, she -- like many -- believes that he is the
reincarnated forefather god of her tribe. Naturally, she assumes that her task is to help Cortés destroy the Aztec empire and free her
people. The two fall passionately in love, but Malinalli gradually comes to realize that Cortés's thirst for conquest is all too human. He is
willing to destroy anyone, even his own men, even their own love. 

Throughout Mexican history, Malinalli has been reviled for her betrayal of the Indian people. However, recent historical research has
shown that her role was much more complex; she was the mediator between two cultures, Hispanic and Native American, and two
languages, Spanish and Náhuatl.

This is an extraordinary retelling of the passionate and tragic love between the conquistador Cortez and the Indian
woman Malinalli, his interpreter during his conquest of the Aztecs. Malinalli's Indian tribe has been conquered by the
warrior Aztecs. When her father is killed in battle, she is raised by her wisewoman grandmother who imparts to her
the knowledge that their founding forefather god, Quetzalcoatl, had abandoned them after being made drunk by a
trickster god and committing incest with his sister. But he was determined to return with the rising sun and save her
tribe from their present captivity. When Malinalli meets Cortez she, like many, suspects that he is the returning
Quetzalcoatl, and assumes her task is to welcome him and help him destroy the Aztec empire and free her people. The
two fall passionately in love, but Malinalli gradually comes to realize that Cortez's thirst for conquest is all too human,
and that for gold and power, he is willing to destroy anyone, even his own men, even their own love. 

In this brief novel, the author of 1992’s Like Water For Chocolate attempts to repair the reputation of one of Mexican history’s most
reviled women, the Spanish conqueror Cortés’s native interpreter, Malinalli.

As a child, Malinalli (aka Malinche) is sold by her mother into slavery but retains her beloved grandmother’s belief in the beneficent pre-
Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, whose return (second coming?) would mean the end of the Aztec conqueror Montezuma’s practice of human
sacrifice. When Cortés arrives, Malinalli believes he is a savior, if not the god himself, and is happy to put her linguistic skills to use as
his translator. She becomes known as “The Tongue.” She allows herself to be baptized, entwining Christian doctrine with her own belief
system, but, although she finds herself sexually drawn to Cortés, she begins to suspect that he is not to be trusted to save her people.
Nevertheless, she remains his translator, following her instinct for survival despite the possibility she may anger her gods. After Malinalli
watches Montezuma give up his kingdom because he has faith in Quetzalcoatl’s return, she realizes that Montezuma has experienced a
spiritual transformation but has also made a terrible mistake in placing his faith in Cortés. As Cortés consolidates a murderous
stranglehold over Mexico, he becomes more monstrous. Finally, Malinalli breaks with him when he requires her to abandon their son in
the same way her mother abandoned her. After Cortés marries her off to his captain, she ends up living a happy life and dying a happy
death, at one with the gods. Because Esquivel is less interested in fleshing out the plot than in delineating the belief system of the pre-
Aztec civilization, everything that happens to Malinalli is swathed in imagery and deep spiritual significance. In contrast, everything
Cortés does is explained as the psychological consequences of his childhood experience.

Despite its lyricism, this odd marriage of spirituality and psychology will be a slog for all but the most devoted New Agers.

Laura Esquivel is the author of Like Water for Chocolate,

Synopsis Born on September 30, 1950, in Mexico City, Mexico, Laura Esquivel began
writing while working as a kindergarten teacher. She wrote plays for her students and wrote
children's television programs during the 1970s and 1980s. Her first novel, Like Water for
Chocolate, became internationally beloved and was made into an award-winning film. Her
other titles includeThe Law of Love and Between the Fires.Profile Mexican writer and author.
Born on September 30, 1950, in Mexico City, Mexico. Esquivel began writing while working as
a kindergarten teacher. She wrote plays for her students and then went on to write children's
television programs during the 1970s and 1980s.Esquivel often explores the relationship
between men and women in Mexico in her work. She is best known for Like Water for
Chocolate (1990), an imaginative and compelling combination of novel and cookbook. It had
been released in Mexico a year earlier. After the release of the film version in 1992,Like Water
for Chocolate became internationally known and loved. The book has sold more than 4.5
million copies.Esquivel has continued to show her creative flair and lyrical style in her later
work. Accompanied by a collection of music, her second novel The Law of Love (1996)
combined romance and science fiction. Between the Fires (2000) featured essays on life,
love, and food. Her novel, Malinche (2006), explores the life of a near mythic figure in
Mexican history-the woman who served as Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés's interpreter
and mistress.Once married to director Alfonso Arau, Esquivel is divorced and lives in Mexico
City, Mexico.
HOW OUR WORDS 
  AFFECT THE
     LIVES OF OTHERS?

SUMMARY:
         When Malinalli, a member of the tribe conquered by the Aztec warriors,first meets the
conquistador Hernán Cortés and becomes his interpreter, she like many believes him to be
the reincarnated forefather god of her tribe. Naturally, she assumes she must welcome him,
and help him destroy the Aztec empire and free her people. The two fall passionately in love,
but Malinalli soon realizes that Cortés's thirst for conquest is all too human, and that he is
willing to destroy anyone, even his own men even their own love.
 REFLECTIVE JOURNAL #1
          When
I read the Laura Esquivel's story "Malinche" I
realize are words are very powerful, proven by Mallinali.
She is a powerful person because of her abiliy to translate
the words. She is also known as "The Tongue" because
she is Interpreter and being Interpreter is big responsible because all the outcome of what
you will say it will be depends on you. 
      
             And I aIso realize that as a person we don't need to trust anybody. We must learn
to know the people around us first before we trust them. Like in the story Malinalli was
considered traitor of Mexico because she was the reason why Spaniards have conquered Mexico. 
        
             In the story I had a favorite part it is when. Mallinali fall in love with Cortes, though
they have a tempestuous “relationship” (I say “relationship” because it is clear
throughout the book that she is still his slave, and he is still the one with all the power).
After bearing witness to his thirst for power and the brutal slaughter of thousands of
people, Malinalli is left trying to reconcile her love for this man and her horror at his
actions, as well as the role she has played in helping him. There is no believable love
story here; it’s all about rape, abuse, control, and victimization.
      
           Then, I'll conclude because I'm so confuse cause I don't really know why Mallinali
was considered by some Mexicans as a traitor when in fact she was just bounded by
the situation and culture of slavery during her time.

Laura Esquivel (born September 30, 1950) is a Mexican novelist, screenwriter and a politician who serves
in the Chamber of Deputies (2012-2018) for the Morena Party. Her first novel Como agua para chocolate (Like
Water for Chocolate) became a bestseller in Mexico and the United States, and was later developed into an
award-winning film.

Contents

 1Literary career
 2Personal life
 3Bibliography
 4References
 5External links
Literary career[edit]
In her novel Como agua para chocolate (in English Like Water for Chocolate) released in 1989, Esquivel
uses magical realism to combine the ordinary and the supernatural, with narrative devices similar to those
used by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier as "el real maravilloso" and by Colombian author Gabriel García
Márquez and Chilean author Isabel Allende. Como agua para chocolate is set during the Mexican Revolution of
the early twentieth Century and features the importance of the kitchen and food in the life of its female
protagonist, Tita. The novel is structured as a year of monthly issues of an old-style women's magazine
containing recipes, home remedies, and love stories, and each chapter ("January," "February," "March,"
etc.) opens with the redaction of a traditional Mexican recipe followed by instructions for preparation. Each
recipe recalls to the narrator a significant event in the protagonist's life.[1]
Esquivel has stated that she believes that the kitchen is the most important part of the house and
characterizes it as a source of knowledge and understanding that brings pleasure.[2] The title Como agua
para chocolate is a phrase used in Mexico to refer to someone whose emotions are about to "boil," because
water for chocolate must be just at the boil when the chocolate is added and beaten [3] The idea for the
novel came to Esquivel "while she was cooking the recipes of her mother and grandmother."[2] Reportedly,
"Esquivel used an episode from her own family to write her book. She had a great-aunt named Tita who
was forbidden to wed and spent her life caring for her mother. Soon after her mother died, so did Tita."[2]
According to Esquivel critic Elizabeth M. Willingham, despite the fact that the novel was poorly received
critically in Mexico, Como agua para chocolate "created a single-author economic boom, unprecedented in
Mexican literature or film of any period by any author" and "went into second and third printings in the first
year of its release and reached the second place in sales in 1989" and "became Mexico’s 'bestseller' in
1990".[4] The novel has been translated into more than 20 languages."[5]
Like Water for Chocolate was developed into a film, which was released in 1994 concurrently with the
book's English translation by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen. In the United States, Like Water
for Chocolate became one of the largest grossing foreign films ever released. The film "dominated"
Mexico's film awards and received ten Arieles and, according to Susan Karlin in Variety (1993), the fine-
tuned final version of the film garnered "'nearly two dozen' international awards".[6]
Esquivel's second novel, La ley del amor (Grijalbo 1995 Mexico), translated as The Law of Love (trans.
Margaret Sayers Peden, Crown–Random, 1996), is described by literary critic Lydia H. Rodríguez as a
"narrative [that] deconstructs the present to create a twenty-third century where remarkable invention and
familiar elements populate a gymnastically-paced text" whose "conflicts . . . set the Law of Love (as a
cosmic philosophy) in motion" [7] Literary critic Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez cautions, "Although Esquivel
merges science fiction trappings with a love story in the novel, . . . [the author] attempts a blueprint for a
harmonious future that remains beyond the experience of present societies, a future anchored by a central
philosophy that individual wholeness can be achieved only by participation in and on behalf of the
community" [8]
Esquivel's non-fiction compilation Between Two Fires (NY: Crown, 2000) featured essays on life, love, and
food.

Esquivel's third novel, Tan veloz como el deseo (Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 2001), translated into English
as Swift as Desire (Trans. Stephen A. Lytle. NY: Crown-Random, 2001), is set in Mexico City the apartment
of Lluvia, a middle-aged divorcée caring for her debilitated father, Júbilo, a former telegraph operator born
with a gift for understanding what people want to say rather than what they actually say. For the first time in
this novel, according to critic Willingham, "Esquivel asks the reader to consider Mexico’s historical dialogue
and [its] enduring truths" in a contemporary setting in which the characters seek a meaningful and lasting
reconciliation that rises above historical errors and misunderstandings [9]
Esquivel's fourth novel Malinche: novela (NY: Atria, 2006), translated as Malinche: A Novel (Trans. Ernesto
Mestre-Reed. NY: Atria, 2006), adopts "Malinalli" as the name of the title character, also known as "Doña
Marina," whose pejorative title "La Malinche" means "the woman of Malinche," the Aztecs' (Nahuatl) name
for Spaniard Hernán Cortez [10] According to critic Ryan Long, Esquivel's naming of her title character and
her novel "reflects upon the diverse and unpredictable revisions that [Malinalli/La Malinche's] mythical
identity has undergone continuously since the period of the Conquest. . . . seek[ing] a middle ground
between Malinalli’s autonomy and Malinche’s predetermination" [11] The novel's book jacket features an
Aztec-style codex designed and executed by Jordi Castells) printed on its interior surface that is meant to
represent Malinalli's diary.
Esquivel's most recent novels are A Lupita le gusta planchar (2014 SUMA, Madrid) and El diario de
Tita (May 2016 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, Barcelona). The former has been translated into
English as Pierced by the Sun (Trans. Jordi Castells. Amazon Crossing, Seattle 2016).

Personal life[edit]
Laura Alicia Palomares Esquivel was born the third of four children to Julio César Esquivel, a telegraph
operator, and Josefa Valdés, a homemaker. Her father's death in 1999 was the inspiration for Tan veloz
como el deseo. Trained as a teacher, Esquivel founded a children’s theater workshop and wrote and
produced dramas for children She first married actor, producer, and director Alfonso Arau, with whom she
collaborated on several films. Esquivel and her present husband make their home in Mexico City.[12]
In March 2009 Laura Esquivel ran as preliminary candidate of the Local Council in District XXVII of Mexico
City for the PRD. Her candidacy was supported by the current Izquierda Unida, which combined various
PRD groups. In 2012, she was elected Federal Representative (in Spanish: diputada federal) for the
Morena Party. She has also served as head of the Mexico City Cultural Committee and member of the
Science & Technology and Environmental Committees for the Morena Party.

Bibliography[edit]
Como agua para chocolate (1989) (English: Like Water for Chocolate)
La ley del amor (1995) (English: The Law of Love)
Íntimas suculencias (1998)
Estrellita marinera (1999)
El libro de las emociones (2000)
Tan veloz como el deseo (2001) (English: Swift as Desire)
Malinche (2006) (English: Malinche: A Novel)
A Lupita le gustaba planchar (2014) (English: Pierced by the Sun)